France Threatens to Storm Out of the G20 Summit

France threatened on Tuesday to storm out of this week’s G20 summit if it did not get the results it wanted, despite Britain’s call for countries to unite and restore confidence to a broken world economy.

“I want results,” French president Nicolas Sarkozy told reporters. “We have to get results, there’s no choice, the crisis is too serious to allow us to have a summit for nothing.”

Shattering any impression of unity, his finance minister warned that Sarkozy would not sign the G20 communique if the summit failed to satisfy his objectives. [via Reuters]

If France refuses to participate in the summit, it would be a blow to both UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Obama. Both men have spoken of their high hopes for the meeting to stimulate international recovery.